New York CityTravel Guide

Tables worth crossing the city for

• Chelsea Market

  New York City

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The things that justify the trip

• Robert Bye

  Grand Central Terminal

  Morning Start at Grand Central Terminal — the celestial ceiling of the main concourse is the city's best free spectacle.

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• Patrick Robert Doyle

  New York Public Library

  Walk five minutes to the New York Public Library and its marble Rose Main Reading Room, then cut through Bryant Park.

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• Kaydn Ito

  Rockefeller Center

  Afternoon Head up Fifth Avenue past Rockefeller Center to the Museum of Modern Art on 53rd Street.

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• Jamison McAndie

  Museum of Modern Art

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• Pedro Kümmel

  Top of the Rock

  Book a timed slot for Top of the Rock afterwards — unlike the Empire State Building, the view here includes the Empire State Building.

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• Paulo Silva

  Times Square

  Evening See Times Square once, at night, when the LED canyon is at full wattage — then escape west for dinner in Hell's Kitchen, where Ninth Avenue stacks Thai, Peruvian and ramen counters shoulder to shoulder.

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• E

  High Line

  Continue to the High Line, the elevated rail-turned-garden that runs roughly 2.3 km along Manhattan's west side, and drop into Chelsea Market near the route's southern end, where the park crosses 16th Street, for taco…

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• Jermaine Ee

  Central Park

  Morning Enter Central Park at 59th Street and wander north past the Mall, Bethesda Terrace and the Bow Bridge — around 3 km of the most photographed parkland on earth.

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• Diane Picchiottino

  Metropolitan Museum of Art

  Exit east to the Metropolitan Museum of Art; give it two focused hours (Egyptian wing, Temple of Dendur, European paintings) rather than an exhausted five.

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• Oculus

  New York City

  The adjacent Oculus transit hall, all white ribs and light, is worth ten minutes.

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• Dumbo

  New York City

  Land in Dumbo for the famous Washington Street view of the Manhattan Bridge, then follow Brooklyn Bridge Park along the waterfront.

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• Brooklyn Bridge Park

  New York City

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Walks, tours and days out we would book again

• Staten Island Ferry

  New York City

  For harbour views, the free Staten Island Ferry from Whitehall Terminal sails right past the Statue of Liberty; ride out and straight back in about an hour.

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